Dr Mustafa is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at Charles Sturt University. He still regards himself as a learner, continually refining his craft. He credits his learning, alhamdulillah, to his teachers, colleagues, and co-researchers. He trained in neuroimaging data analysis under Professor Rik Henson at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, UK, and in medical imaging with Dr Timor Kadir. He now says he is learning from his PhD students as well. Dr Mustafa completed his PhD in imaging data analysis at the University of Nottingham, UK, in 2014. He has worked as an image analyst at MRC-CBU, UK, and Monash University, Australia.

He believes the best ideas grow where academia and industry work together. Alongside his research career, he has developed commercial software and delivered end-to-end AI engineering solutions, from design to deployment and operation. His distributed intelligence tools are now used across Japan, South Korea, Australia, and other parts of the Asia-Pacific region.